Ferrari and Charles Leclerc failed to materialize on pole position once again in this intense 2022 Formula 1 season, as despite a good start and strong defense against Max Verstappen, the Monegasque was left out of the race on lap 18 from 53.
After this incident, which caused the appearance of the safety car, Max Verstappen was placed in the first position and did not let go until the checkered flag, opening a gap of more than 10 seconds ahead at some moments of the test before his closest pursuer, a Lewis Hamilton who, avoiding problems and with a great driving, earned second place.
Despite the fact that Carlos Sainz, who started 19th, made a great comeback and overtook Sergio Pérez on the track in the fight for third position on the podium, a five-second penalty for an ” unsafe release ” after a bad stop by Ferrari and a somewhat controversial second pit stop finally put him out of the running.
In the last laps and after a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) caused by Guanyu Zhou, George Russell caught Pérez by surprise and managed to overtake him, snatching the third position on the podium, not without opposition from the Mexican driver, who tried to recover third unsuccessful post.
The Spanish Ferrari driver minimized damage and crossed the checkered flag in fifth place, ahead of his compatriot Fernando Alonso, who quietly completed a perfect race at the wheel of his Alpine to score points for the seventh consecutive grand prix.
Lando Norris finished seventh, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, confirming the good feelings of McLaren , which in this Formula 1 French Grand Prix 2022 had brought a great package of improvements that, judging by this weekend, have worked.
Lance Stroll completed the top ten positions, just ahead of his teammate, a Sebastian Vettel who came very close to entering the points zone.
F1 French GP 2022 Race Results
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
53 | 25 | ||||
| 2 |  Lewis Hamilton |
 |
53 | 10.587 | 18 | |||
| 3 | George Russell |
 |
53 | 16.495 | 15 | |||
| 4 |  Sergio Perez |
|
53 | 17,310 | 12 | |||
| 5 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
53 | 28,872 | eleven | |||
| 6 | Fernando Alonso |
 |
53 | 42.879 | 8 | |||
| 7 | Lando Norris |
 |
53 | 52.026 | 6 | |||
| 8 |  Esteban Ocon |
 |
53 | 56.959 | 4 | |||
| 9 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
 |
53 | 1’00.372 | 2 | |||
| 10 |  Lance Stroll |
 |
53 | 1’02.549 | 1 | |||
| see results | ||||||||
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
F1 French GP 2022 Race Summary
Exit of the French GP, Leclerc maintains the lead and Alonso gains positions
In the first meters, Charles Leclerc made a perfect start and kept Max Verstappen behind, while in the second row, Sergio Pérez was a bit stuck and Lewis Hamilton climbed to third position on the podium.
Fernando Alonso also made a great start and gained two places to place fifth, ahead of George Russell and Lando Norris. The other Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon, touched Yuki Tsunoda and the Japanese fell to last place, an action for which the French driver was penalized with five seconds.
Behind, Kevin Magnssen gained more than six places at the start and Carlos Sainz, a little more conservative, moved up four positions, so the work done yesterday to start ahead of the Danish driver from Haas was nothing.
The battle begins Leclerc – Verstappen and Alpine – McLaren
After the first laps, the two opened a gap of more than five seconds with respect to their closest pursuers, although the Monegasque could not distance himself enough from Verstappen and he remained in the DRS zone.
On lap 6, the Red Bull driver managed to parallel Leclerc at the beginning of the third sector, but the Ferrari driver fought back and, although he was going slower than normal, as he was saving tyres, he seemed to control the situation.
Something similar happened in the fight for the podium, Pérez remained less than a second behind the Briton from Mercedes, but could not overtake despite the great help of the DRS.
Behind, Alonso lost position with Russell and dropped to sixth place, just ahead of the two McLarens, his two great rivals as he recognized on Saturday after qualifying. A few laps later, Ocon would overtake Daniel Ricciardo for eighth place, although he still had the five-second penalty to go.
The comebacks of Magnussen and Sainz and first pit stops
Starting from the back row because of their engine change penalties, both the Dane and Spaniard quickly moved close to the top ten, although Magnussen surprised everyone by pitting on lap 9 to swap his medium tires for hard ones.
One lap later, Mick Schumacher and Guanyu Zhou did the same, ruling out the one-stop and two-stop strategies as the degradation was very high, as expected.
On lap 13, Sainz entered the points zone for the first time after overtaking Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, both Aston Martins. The Spanish driver stayed on track with the hard tire 30 seconds away from the head of the race.
Verstappen plays it with the strategy and Leclerc ends up against the wall
After almost 10 laps in the DRS zone, the Monegasque Ferrari driver managed to get Verstappen away from the rear of his car and the Red Bull driver, who managed to account for a difference of up to two seconds, made his stop on lap 17 .
Instead of responding to the movement of the Dutchman, who had ridden new hard and seemed to opt for the two stops, the Maranello team made the decision to keep Leclerc on track with medium tires and gave him the message to attack.
However, everything went to waste at that very moment, because Leclerc lost control of his F1-75 at turn 11 and went straight into the protection of the circuit, reporting problems with the accelerator again, just like in Austria , which forced a new abandonment of the Monegasque when he was leading the race without major complications.
Safety Car and pit stops, with an error by Ferrari and Sainz
As a result of this accident on the track, Race Direction interrupted the session with a safety car that all those who had not stopped took advantage of to make their first pit stops. Verstappen, with tires a couple of laps older than the rest, regained first place, ahead of Hamilton, Pérez, Russell and Alonso.
After a fairly slow stop by Ferrari, Carlos Sainz came out onto the track behind the McLarens, but managed to overtake them and place sixth as soon as the race was restarted, with a medium tire, something that favored him compared to the rest of the top 10 drivers, all with the harder compound.
The Spanish Ferrari driver was further hurt by Ferrari’s poor stopping when he was penalized five seconds for an ” unsafe release ” due to a Williams having to brake in pit lane to avoid the accident as he rejoined.
On lap 22, Sainz overtook Alonso and moved up to fifth place. At the same time, Max Verstappen consolidated his lead by opening a gap of two seconds with respect to Hamilton, who in turn was trying to move the Mexican away from the DRS zone.
The race enters a relaxation phase and Sainz continues with his comeback, with “one but”
After the halfway point of the grand prix, the positions stabilized, with Verstappen more than four seconds behind Hamilton and the latter with another two ahead of Pérez.
Behind, the fights were rather few and except for some braking past, there was little reason for emotion in Paul Ricard, until on lap 31, Carlos Sainz overtook George Russell for fourth position after an extraordinary movement, with the podium already between eyebrows, although knowing that he still had to comply with the five-second penalty.
Despite the clear disadvantage that his medium tires were, compared to the hard ones of his rivals, in terms of duration, Sainz entered the DRS zone with Checo on lap 37 of 53, fighting for the podium for the first time in all the French GP.
At the back of the standings, Latifi and Magnussen came into contact and the Williams driver spun. Due to the damage caused to their cars, both had to go through the pits, with the Dane retiring his car and the Canadian returning to the track, although already very far from the points zone.
Tire issues and race stabilization
With just over 10 laps to go before the checkered flag, almost all the drivers began to complain about the degradation of their hard drives and the times began to drop.
Meanwhile, Sainz negotiated his strategy with his team, since he was the only one on the track with the means and the danger of running out of tires towards the end of the race was evident.
Once the decision was made to stay on the track, the Spaniard and the Mexican staged a great battle on the asphalt and finally the Ferrari driver won the position, climbing to third position on the podium.
Change of plans for Sainz, controversy Russell – Pérez and victory of Verstappen
On lap 43 and after a touch between Pérez and Russell, because the Mexican was suffering a lot with his hard tires, Ferrari called Carlos Sainz into the boxes and the Spaniard returned to the track ninth with new tires and after serving his five seconds of penalty.
The Ferrari driver began to fly on the track and quickly began to gain positions, getting rid of drivers with amazing ease and reaching the final fifth place, also getting the extra point for the fastest lap.
In the last few laps, a VSC caused by Zhou changed the order of the podium in a somewhat controversial way, since when it was deactivated, Pérez did not react quickly enough and Russell stole his wallet and third place on the podium with a move that from Red Bull they did not understand.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen crossed the checkered flag in first position, winning another victory this season, ahead of the Mercedes, who shared the podium for the first time in 2022.
Do you want to read our news before anyone else and for free? Follow us here on our Telegram channel and you won’t miss a thing. All the information, at your fingertips!
